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There are no sure things on the Churchill Downs racetrack — and this year, there are few sure things around the track as well.

Uncertainty over the economy due to President Donald Trump’s oscillating tariff policies looms large over America’s longest running sporting event and the most exciting two minutes in sports — the Kentucky Derby.

The track itself has put some projects on hold.

“Uncertainty is a theme out there in the American economy, and that’s one we pay attention to,” said Bill Carstanjen, CEO of Churchill Downs. “So we did pause our $900 million construction project primarily, and mostly because we weren’t sure what things were going to cost. And whenever you build something, you’ve got to be very careful on the cost side.”

Churchill Downs announced last week it was pausing a major renovation project it had announced in February due to the uncertainty in the economy and Trump’s tariffs. The racetrack had planned to debut these renovations during the next year’s racing season, including more than 20,000 new seats, 36 luxury suites and upgrades to the infrastructure. But the higher price of steel — crucial to construction — and supply chain interruptions, created a “double whammy” for Churchill Downs.

Carstanjen said the tariffs and current economic environment created “unanticipated and currently unquantifiable expected cost increases in materials.”

While the 151st Kentucky Derby is on track to meet its normal attendance, Carstanjen did see some hesitance in sales this year, particularly in the lower-tier tickets. In addition to ticket sales, Carstanjen said Churchill Downs is seeing overall “softness” in some areas of betting, including a slip in sports wagering to the tune of more than $1 million. He blamed faltering consumer confidence.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat in a largely Republican state, called Trump’s tariffs an “attack on American people” and noted that both Republican senators from his state have also criticized the president’s economic strategy.

“The president’s current tariff plan is causing chaos in our economy,” he said at a press conference Thursday. “It is slowing our economic growth. It’s hitting large businesses, with UPS announcing a lot of layoffs. It’s hitting small and medium-sized businesses.”

Many Derby goers were cognizant of Churchill Downs’ announcement, especially those who were impressed by this year’s renovations. Ed Massey of New Jersey has been coming to the Derby for decades.

“Tariffs are not going to get in the way of the 151-year Derby spirit,” he told NBC News. “But I do worry about the future growth of the event. The Derby will outlast any tariffs, but will it be able to grow? That remains to be seen.”

Horse racing and betting aren’t the only two Kentucky staples that are taking a hit from the tariffs. Economic experts in the state say they’ve already seen an impact on agriculture, energy, manufacturing and bourbon — which has a $9 billion impact in Kentucky.

“A billion-dollar investment is more than just what it means for the track — that will have a ripple effect on the economy in the region,” said Kate Shanks, vice president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “You’ve got to purchase lumber. You’ve got to purchase glass, steel, hire electricians, HVAC workers, and we were eager to see that happen. And now that’s been paused, and it’s absolutely going to have an impact on jobs in the region.”

According to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the state has approximately 480,000 jobs that depend on trade. The chamber estimated these tariffs will cost the average Kentuckian up to $1,200 per year.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried something new on Monday.  

Instead of just addressing credentialed journalists in the storied White House briefing room, she held a separate “influencer briefing” for 10 people.  

“Tens of millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news, and we are embracing that change, not ignoring it,” she said during her seven-minute-long introductory remarks. “All journalists, outlets and voices have a seat at the table now, and you being here today for this briefing proves that.” 

But as the new briefings continued through the week, it became clear that a very specific group was being given the special access.   

Of the 25 influencers identified by NBC News who attended the briefings, all but one have a history of explicit support for President Donald Trump’s administration, and some had direct connections to Trump — through either previously working in his administration, or maintaining a personal connection with his family or members of his Cabinet.  

“Where’s the list conservative leaning voices the Biden administration invited to the White House for similar engagements? The fact of the matter is, the legacy media is furious that information flow is not exclusive to them anymore,” Kaelan Door, the White House deputy communications director, said in a statement. “We will ALWAYS find ways to meet people where they are, no hit piece will dissuade us.”

Indeed, the Trump White House isn’t the first or only to engage with influencers. Joe Biden did so as president as well, at one point inviting more than 100 content creators to discuss a range of issues.

But the current administration has more explicitly embraced pro-Trump media, pushing aside some traditional media outlets to exert more control over who gets access to the president.

“The legacy media has had access to all open press events for decades, now new media gets access too,” a White House official added, noting that the influencer briefings were also livestreamed.

Trump’s tribe 

In the first briefing, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, who has nearly 1 million followers across various platforms, was welcomed as one of the influencers. After complimenting Trump for his “commitment to transparency,” Spicer asked questions about Trump’s legislative priorities and why Trump continues to sit for interviews with mainstream outlets and publications. 

In the second briefing on Tuesday, two of the eight influencers welcomed had clear ties to Trump’s current and former administration. Link Lauren, who has over 1 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, served as a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his presidential campaign. In the briefing, she threw a softball, asking Leavitt what advice she has for young working parents like herself.  

In the same briefing, former Treasury Department official William Upton appeared in his new role as political editor at the conservative publication The National Pulse, asking a question about the status of the Trump administration’s rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine.  

In the third briefing, on Wednesday, one of the nine influencers present was 18-year-old Bo Loudon. The son of Trump surrogate Gina Loudon and former Republican Missouri state Sen. John Loudon, Bo Loudon has called himself Barron Trump’s “best friend” and appeared in numerous photos with both Barron Trump and the president. Loudon praised Leavitt during the influencer confab, calling her “an inspiration to Gen Z,” before asking what her “biggest highlight” was “during these first 100 historic days.”  

Also present were Newsmax host David J. Harris, who was recognized by Trump at a Black History Month reception in February for being by his side “from Day 1,” and former Fox News host Eric Bolling, who authored the book “The Swamp: Washington’s Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It” after he was fired from Fox News following allegations that he sent lewd photographs to three female colleagues. Bolling has denied the allegations. 

Jack Posobiec, a longtime Trump supporter who has promoted the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, also attended Wednesday’s briefing. He has reportedly been invited on and attended trips with members of Trump’s Cabinet, according to a post Posobiec made himself and a report by The Washington Post.  

Fringe meme-makers  

Alongside the well-connected crowd was a slew of other right-wing influencers and personalities. 

 On Monday, influencers Grant Godwin and Rogan O’Handley, who run the highly followed conservative meme accounts @the_typical_liberal and @DC_Draino, asked about the Jeffrey Epstein files and a campaign to implement laws that would allow concealed gun carrying in all 50 states.  

On Tuesday, Brendan Dilley, known for leading a pro-Trump meme team that created a controversial video shared by Trump in May 2024 that mentioned the “creation of a unified Reich,” played a game of “Truth or Trolling” with Leavitt. 

On Wednesday, Dom Lucre, a highly followed conspiracy theorist on X who was briefly banned from the platform after he shared child sexual abuse material, asked Leavitt about the possibility of an investigation into Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over election integrity. Leavitt welcomed the question and called it “refreshing.” 

‘Opposite of authentic’ 

Jackson Gosnell appeared at Monday’s briefing, and appears semi-regularly on right-leaning One America News. On TikTok, he’s built a following of over 150,000 followers through videos where he shares news in a more traditional newscasting style. In a phone interview, he said he was surprised at how favorable some of the other influencers were to the Trump administration in the briefings. 

“Some people were very complimentary to the administration. I sort of took the approach of asking a question instead of, you know, more so giving a praise speech,” he said.   

Gosnell, who asked a question about the current status of talks between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia, said his invite came after he submitted an application via an online form shared by Leavitt on X. He said the White House reached out to him just a few days before the briefing and asked if he wanted to attend a special event with the press secretary.  

Gosnell said questions were not screened before the press conference, and that at least in his experience, it was a very hands-off interaction; he said he was at the White House only for the duration of the press conference, and he didn’t receive guidance before or after on what should or shouldn’t be posted.  

The influencer briefings have received a largely critical response online. Many on the left have criticized them for featuring creators with a right-wing tilt, and individuals who have a history of sharing controversial content. And on the right, influential figures like Laura Loomer have criticized them for leaving out hardcore MAGA influencers like herself. 

One influential right-wing publicist, who asked not to be named to protect his clients, said that he’s recommended influencers he works with not attend the briefings.  

“The entire reason the public turned to these influencers is because they wanted authenticity and the truth. These briefings are the opposite of authentic,” he wrote in a text message. “You can’t market yourself as edgy or a truth-teller when you’re sucking up to power in the most elite building on earth. These briefings will backfire on the influencers and podcasters attending them. 

All this is a far cry from the peninsula’s history as the home of the Crimean Tatars, a Turkic-speaking Islamic ethnic group whose roots in the region can be traced to the start of the 15th century.

They were persecuted for centuries by the Russian Empire after it seized the peninsula in 1783. And following several rounds of mass deportations, they have since been replaced by Russian speakers, outnumbered 13% to 76% in a population of 2.2 million.

“It is not only land,” said one Crimean Tatar, 30, who works as a civic activist and asked to remain anonymous to protect their family on the peninsula. “If we refuse to fight politically for Crimea, it will be also a sign that it is fine to kill people, change geopolitical laws, steal land and start wars.”

Many Tatars would like to see Crimea return to Ukrainian control, with Joseph Stalin’s 1944 mass deportation of their people still in living memory.

In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev, then the leader of the Soviet Union, transferred Crimea to what was then the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. When the USSR broke apart in 1991, Crimea slipped out of Russia’s orbit, becoming part of the newly independent Ukraine.

For Putin, who believes the Soviet collapse was “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” taking Crimea in 2014 was righting a historical wrong.

“As far as most Russians are concerned, whether they support or despise Putin, Crimea is Russian,” said Mark Galeotti, director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence. “I was living in Moscow when Crimea was annexed, and the enthusiasm was astonishing, with people partying all night.”

For most of the rest of the world — including the U.S. — it was an illegal occupation, with only a handful of countries such as North Korea and Sudan disagreeing. In 2018, Trump’s then-secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Washington rejected “Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea.”

That’s what makes Trump’s reversal of that position so striking.

“Crimea will stay with Russia,” he told Time magazine on Friday.

When asked Sunday whether Zelenskyy was ready to give up Crimea, Trump told reporters, “Oh, I think so, yeah.”

That would be a dramatic reversal for the Ukrainian president, who has previously said there is “nothing to discuss” when it comes to allowing Russia to annex parts of his country. Even if he wanted to, Article 2 of Ukraine’s constitution says its “inviolable” borders can only be changed by a parliament-granted referendum, and not during its current state of martial law.

Some within the Trump administration don’t appear optimistic that success is imminent. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on Thursday that the war is “not going to end any time soon.”

Russia currently controls around 20% of Ukraine following its full-scale invasion in 2022. But for many Ukrainians, Crimea holds a singular status.

“Crimea is a test for principles, resilience and dignity,” said the Crimean Tatar civic activist. “Not only for Ukraine, but also for the entire civilized world.”

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we have the first comments from Kristen Welker’s exclusive interview with President Donald Trump. Plus, we’re looking at another U.S. ally — after Canada — that has seen its upcoming election roiled by Trump as he reshapes not just American politics but global politics as well. 

Sign up to receive this newsletter in your inbox every weekday here.

— Scott Bland

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Trump downplays recession fears, saying the U.S. would be ‘OK’ in the long term

By Alexandra Marquez

President Donald Trump on Friday downplayed concerns about potential economic trouble, saying everything would be “OK” in the long term, even if the U.S economy experienced a recession in the short term. 

Asked twice by “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker whether it would be OK in the long term if there was a recession in the short term, the president said, “Look, yeah, it’s — everything’s OK. What we are — I said, this is a transition period. I think we’re going to do fantastically.” 

Following up, Welker asked Trump if he was worried about a recession, to which he responded, “No.” Asked whether he thinks one could happen, Trump replied, “Anything can happen, but I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country.” 

The remarks come as analysts on Wall Street are increasingly worried that the country could face a recession due to Trump’s changing tariff policy. 

“Well, you know, you say, ‘Some people on Wall Street say’ — well, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall Street say that we’re going to have the greatest economy in history. Why don’t you talk about them?” Trump said during the interview at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. 

“There are many people on Wall Street say this is going to be the greatest windfall ever happen,” the president added. 

According to initial measurements released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, the U.S. economy shrunk by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, a reduction largely driven by a fall in exports and a boost in imports ahead of Trump’s expected tariffs. 

On Wednesday, while meeting with members of his Cabinet, Trump deflected blame for the first-quarter gross domestic product numbers, saying that it was a result of the economy former President Joe Biden left behind. 

“You probably saw some numbers today,” Trump said, “and I have to start off by saying, that’s Biden.” 

Read more →

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After Canadian election, Trump could drag down conservatives in Australia too

By Mahalia Dobson

Days after a Canadian election that hinged on who would best stand up to U.S. President Donald Trump, he is at the center of an election in another liberal democracy.

Trust in the United States is plummeting in Australia, which votes Saturday amid global financial turmoil sparked by tariffs Trump has imposed on trading partners around the world including Australia, a U.S. ally and vital security partner in countering China. 

As in Canada, Australia’s opposition conservative party, the Liberal Party, was primed to win before Trump returned to office, thanks to public anger over the cost of living and record-high home prices. But it has since lost support among voters increasingly concerned about how their government will handle Trump. 

A poll released last month by the Lowy Institute, a research foundation, found only 36% of Australians expressed any level of trust in the United States — the lowest in the annual poll’s two-decade history.

While 81% of Australians disapprove of Trump’s tariffs, the vast majority (80%) continue to say the U.S. alliance is important for Australia’s security.

Those numbers reflect the economic and security dichotomy Australia faces: how to balance its security ties with the U.S. and its trade interests with China.

Read more on Saturday’s election in Australia →

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Scott Bland and Bridget Bowman.

If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at [email protected]

And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.

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Doctors are increasingly detecting stomach tumors at an early stage, raising hopes for lifesaving treatment for one of the deadliest types of cancer.

Stomach cancer, the disease that killed country music star Toby Keith in 2024, is typically difficult to catch early and tends to be discovered at an advanced stage when cancer cells have spread, researchers reported Saturday at Digestive Disease Week, a major international conference for doctors and researchers in gastroenterology, liver diseases and endoscopy.

Advances in the tools used to scrutinize the upper gastrointestinal tract have made it possible to get a clearer view of the stomach, allowing doctors to see small tumors that previously wouldn’t have been detected, according to the study’s lead author, Dr. Mohamed Tausif Siddiqui, a gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition fellow at the Cleveland Clinic.

“They used to be detected after they metastasized, which is why there were very poor outcomes,” Siddiqui said in an interview. “The whole paradigm is changing, with more and more local cancers and fewer metastatic cancers being detected.”

Newer endoscopes, thin tubes used to look inside the body, provide higher-definition views of the upper gastrointestinal tract, Siddiqui said. The cameras that are guided into the patient’s stomach have the capacity to zoom in on suspect areas.

Siddiqui and his colleagues analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute’s SEER-22 database and found that diagnoses of early-stage stomach cancer rose steadily from 2004 to 2021.

In contrast, more advanced cases — when the cancer had already spread to nearby lymph nodes and/or distant organs — had dropped significantly.

In 2004, early-stage stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer. was detected at a rate of 1.94 per 100,000. By 2021, that number had risen to 2.97 per 100,000. That’s compared to 2.55 per 100,000 for late-stage cancers detected in 2004 and 2.35 per 100,000 detected in 2021.

The American Cancer Society predicts that in the U.S. in 2025, there will be around 26,500 new cases of stomach cancer diagnosed and more than 10,800 deaths.

More cases of stomach cancer are being diagnosed in people ages 50 and younger, a separate study being presented at the meeting by Cleveland Clinic researchers found.

What are causes and symptoms of stomach cancer?

There are many factors that can raise a person’s risk of developing stomach cancer, including infection with Helicobacter pylori bacteria, genetic predisposition and a history of smoking, Siddiqui said.

H. pylori infections lead to inflammation in the stomach and have been shown to cause ulcers.

Early signs of stomach cancer include:

• Acid reflux that can’t be controlled with acid suppressing medications.
• Abdominal discomfort and excessive burping after eating.
• Stomach cramping.
• Unexplained abdominal pain.
• Anemia.
• Weight loss, with no explanation.

The researchers hope that the new findings will lead to guidelines for stomach cancer screening, similar to recommendations for colon cancer.

Currently in the U.S. people get checked for the disease only if they have symptoms or a family history of the disease. Many people don’t have noticeable symptoms until the cancer has spread.

Dr. Ji Yoon Yoon, a gastroenterologist and an assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said the new research could be a “turning point” for early detection.

“What’s very exciting about these findings is, for the first time, localized stomach cancers are the majority of diagnoses in the U.S.,” said Yoon, who was not affiliated with the new study.

Japan and South Korea, which have higher rates of stomach cancer, have screening programs, Yoon said. “Anybody older than 50 gets screened in Japan, and in South Korea, people aged 40 to 74 get an upper endoscopy every two years.”

Early-stage gastric cancers, when confined to the stomach lining, can often be treated with minimally invasive procedures. In more advanced cases, more extensive surgery is usually required to remove part of the stomach.

The overall five-year survival rate for stomach cancer is around 36%, Yoon said. For people with earlier-stage or localized cancer, the five-year survival rate is 77%.

Dr. Michael Gibson, an associate professor of medicine and the director of translational research for esophagogastric cancer at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said it’s good that it’s increasingly being caught early, especially since “the incidence of gastric cancer is rising in the adolescent and young adult population.”

The new study’s data shows that the stage of diagnosis is getting lower within adolescent and young adult groups. While it’s not clear why the patients in the study got checked for gastric cancer, it’s possible some of the patients were being scanned for other reasons and the stomach cancer was picked up incidentally, he said.

The new findings suggest that more patients may survive stomach cancer because it’s being caught early, said Dr. Ryan Moy, a medical oncologist specializing in gastrointestinal cancers at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

“However, we will likely need to have longer follow-up to know whether this translates into improvement in survival outcomes,” Gibson said.

The California sheriff whose office is investigating the death of John Elway’s agent after a golf cart incident said on Friday that the deadly fall appears to be an accident.

Elway, one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, was reported to have been driving the golf cart Saturday night in the Palm Springs-area community of La Quinta when his agent, Jeffrey Sperbeck, fell and later died.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Friday that his office is not finished with the investigation, “but so far it appears to be just a tragic accident.”

Sperbeck, 62, was taken to a hospital in critical condition and he was pronounced dead Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said.

A source familiar with the details of the incident confirmed to NBC affiliate KUSA of Denver that Elway, a Hall of Fame member and two-time Super Bowl winner, was driving the cart.

Elway said Wednesday that he was devastated by the loss of his agent and close friend.

Elway’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said in a statement Friday that “This has been a terrible time for everyone involved and our hearts continue to go out to the Sperbeck family.”

“The investigation has confirmed what we already knew: this was a tragic accident and sometimes things happen in life that we will never comprehend,” Steinberg said.

Two commercial flights approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport were ordered to do “go-arounds” Thursday because of an Army helicopter, three months after a mid-air collision that killed 67 people, officials said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday said he would demand answers from the Pentagon about the Black Hawk helicopter flight that forced the Delta Air Lines and Republic Airways planes to abandon their landings.

“Unacceptable. Our helicopter restrictions around DCA are crystal clear,” Duffy wrote on X, referring to airport by its Federal Aviation Agency location identifier.

No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred around 2:30 p.m.

U.S. Army spokesperson Capt. Victoria Goldfedib said that the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was “conducting flight operations into the Pentagon in accordance with published FAA flight routes and DCA Air Traffic Control” when it was told to go around by Pentagon Air Traffic Control.

The two commercial flights were then told to go around rather than land to ensure no conflicts in the airspace, Goldfedib said.

“The incident is currently under investigation. The United States Army remains committed to aviation safety and conducting flight operations within all approved guidelines and procedures,” she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said they are investigating the incident.

The helicopter had no passengers, but two pilots and a crew chief were on board, two U.S. officials said. It was flying below 200 feet as it rehearsed a Joint Emergency Evacuation Plan, two officials told NBC, practicing approaches as part of the return to flight training operations.

Helicopters generally are not permitted to fly above 200 feet near Reagan, under FAA rules.

On Jan. 29, an American Eagle commercial plane and a Black Hawk helicopter collided in mid-air above the Potomac River near the airport, killing the 64 people aboard the jet and the three people aboard the helicopter.

The crash raised questions about the congested airspace around Ronald Reagan National Airport, which is in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington.

In that case, investigators have evidence that the helicopter involved in the mid-air collision was higher than the 200-foot ceiling, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in February.

The NTSB has has said it wants to severely restrict helicopter traffic near the airport, arguing that there’s an “intolerable risk to aviation safety.“

The woman who kidnapped and held Elizabeth Smart captive for nine months in the early 2000s was arrested in Utah this week after visiting at least two parks, which she can’t do because of her status as a sex offender.

Wanda Barzee, 79, was arrested at her Salt Lake City home Thursday and was booked on one count of violating her status as a sex offender in Utah, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Police Department said Friday.

Utah law prohibits registered sex offenders from entering protected areas, including public parks.

Detectives with the Salt Lake Police Department received information that Barzee had allegedly visited at least two parks in the city — Liberty Park and Sugar House Park — in April, police spokesperson Brent Weisberg said.

Records from the Salt Lake County Metro Jail indicate Barzee is no longer in custody. It was not immediately clear if she was released on bail or if she has legal representation.

Weisberg said in the statement that court records show she was released on judicial orders.

Barzee was convicted of state and federal crimes, and in 2010 was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for her role in the abduction. She was released from prison in 2018

Barzee’s husband, Brian David Mitchell, is serving a life sentence for Smart’s kidnapping and assaults.

Smart was taken at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002. The teen’s kidnapping and disappearance garnered media attention and headlines across the globe.

Nine months after she was abducted, Smart was seen walking the streets of a Salt Lake City suburb with Mitchell.

She has said her time in captivity included repeated sexual assaults by Mitchell. Whan Barzee was released from prison, Smart said that during her time in captivity, the woman would “encourage her husband to continue to rape me.”

Smart, now 37, has since become an outspoken advocate against child abduction and sexual violence. 

Three good Samaritans — including two Army reservists — saved a woman who was being attacked during an attempted carjacking in Camden County, New Jersey, officials said.

The incident unfolded Thursday around 8:30 a.m. on Jackson Road near the intersection of Waverly Avenue in Waterford Township. Police said a man, later identified as 45-year-old Rondean McDonald, drove his vehicle off the road and crashed into a wooded area. A 59-year-old woman who was driving by stopped and tried to help, police said. McDonald then ripped open the woman’s passenger side door and entered her car, according to investigators.

McDonald asked the victim if she could drive him but she refused, according to the criminal complaint. As the woman tried to call 911, McDonald grabbed her phone and threw it to the floor, police said. When the woman told him to get out of the car, McDonald attacked her, scratching her and placing his hands around her neck, strangling her, according to the criminal complaint.

Joseph Knazek said he witnessed the attack as it continued.

“She stood her ground but he was wrestling with her,” Knazek said. “The seatbelt was caught around her neck. He’s pulling and he’s scraping up her arms and he’s just screaming, ‘Drive! Drive!’”

Knazek said he jumped in to try and help the woman.

“So I took a hold of his wrists while trying to free her from the seatbelt just so she could get out,” Knazek said.

Two military men — both Army reservists and one of whom is a Philadelphia police officer — also noticed the attack and jumped in as well, investigators said. One of the men used a fire extinguisher to break into the driver’s side window and get McDonald out of the car, according to officials. They then restrained him until police arrived at the scene, officials said.

The victim was taken to the hospital in stable condition. McDonald, meanwhile, was arrested and charged with several offenses, including carjacking and driving while intoxicated

Video taken at a Minnesota public park this week shows a white woman apparently admitting she used a racist slur against a Black youth she accused of taking an item that belongs to her child.

The man who recorded the video, Sharmake Omar, 30, said in an interview Friday that the 5-year-old child was called the N-word by the woman Monday.

“The Rochester Police Department is aware of the video that was posted on social media and has received multiple calls related to it,” it said Friday. “We are gathering information and actively looking into the matter.”

Omar said that when he saw the woman berating the child of Somali heritage, a background he shares, he intervened and she turned her apparent anger on him, using the slur repeatedly, which was captured on the video.

In the video, verified by NBC News, the woman, apparently carrying her child away, answered, “Yeah” when asked if she called the youth the slur.

“He took my son’s stuff,” she said.

Omar asks if “digging” through her child’s belongings at the park, which is what the mother said the boy had done, would justify using the racist word against a child.

The woman responded, “If that’s what he’s going to act like,” the video shows.

On that video, and in Friday’s interview, Omar said the child has autism spectrum disorder. He said that he knows the boy’s parents, who he said are from Somalia, and that they were also supervising their three other children at the park.

The parents, he said, have expressed support for prosecuting the woman, if possible.

“That little boy … was visibly upset by the incident,” Omar said.

Omar said that when he intervened, the woman, whom he had never met before, also told him he and his wife shouldn’t have more children because they are a drain on the welfare system.

Minnesota has a long history of supporting and resettling international refugees accepted by the United States. 

The office of Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, in 2023 estimated the number of people in the state who have Somali heritage at more than 86,000. On Thursday, Rochester’s congressional delegation issued a joint statement commending Omar for “standing up and protecting one of our youngest community members” and condemning “these vile acts of racism” he has described.

Also on Thursday, the NAACP Rochester Branch said in a statement that it “stands in solidarity with the impacted child” and called on police, the Rochester city attorney and the Olmsted County Attorney’s Office to investigate and charge the woman in the video, suggesting her interaction with the boy may have been a hate crime.

The Rochester Branch said the Monday incident was one of multiple recent examples of “a disturbing increase in racially motivated acts” in the city of more than 122,000, perhaps best known for being home of the Mayo Clinic and its world-renowned hospital and research.

“What happened at the park is yet another painful reminder that hate continues to exist,” it said in its statement.

Protesters are expected to gather Monday for a Protect Our Children: Arrest & Charge event organized by Rochester Action People’s Community.

Minnesota law defines one type of assault as an action taken with “intent to cause fear.” Separately, it states that a hate crime has taken place when someone is assaulted “because of the victim’s actual or perceived race,” a misdemeanor.

Attempts to contact the woman in the video, verify her name, and speak to a family member have so far been unsuccessful.